In the construction of buildings, bridges, and other man-made structures, it is well known to place passive supports such as footers, piles, and other subsurface supports for supporting such man-made structures. These types of supports are passive because the earth around the subsurface support must first shift or move to mobilize the available tensile, bending, or shear capacities.
One particular problem associated with subsurface supports which may be made of iron, steel, or other metals is that over time, corrosion takes place which ultimately degrades the ability of the support to provide designed support for an overlying structure.
In addition to providing the above mentioned subsurface supports, it is also known to provide ground strengthening by driving elongate reinforcing members, referred to as soil nails, into the ground in an array thus improving the bulk properties of the ground. The soil nails themselves are not used for direct support of an overlying structure; rather, the soil nails are simply used to prevent shifting or other undesirable properties or characteristics of a particular geological formation which is built upon.
In some cases, the earth surrounding or near a man made structure becomes unstable and requires active support, such as by a tieback. Tiebacks are pre-tensioned subsurface supports that are used to restrain any movement of surrounding soil and rock. Tiebacks are similar to passive soil nails in construction, and can be emplaced in a similar fashion as a soil nail. More recently, soil nails and tiebacks have also been used to provide temporary and permanent excavation support and slope stabilization.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,831 discloses a method of soil nailing wherein a soil nail is placed in the ground by being fired from a barrel of a launcher. The soil nail is loaded into the barrel, and pressurized gas emitted from the barrel forces the soil nail into the ground to a desired depth. One advantage of using a soil nail launcher, is that the soil nails can be emplaced with a minimum amount of labor and equipment thereby minimizing environmental impacts as well as providing a simple and economical means of strengthening the ground. Drilling is the traditional way to install soil nails, tiebacks, and anchors.
Although there are a multitude of subsurface supports and methods by which subsurface supports can be emplaced, there is still a need for simple and effective subsurface supports and an environmentally friendly manner in which subsurface supports are emplaced.